When the children of Barbara village, the forgotten village far from the center of Khanfar district, about 30 kilometers away, want to go to their school, they have to travel a distance of four kilometers, specifically to the village of Al-Tariya, so most of them are forced to leave their education because of the long distance, and engage in the only available job, which is grazing sheep.
When the war broke out in 2019 between the forces of the internationally recognized Yemeni government on the one hand, and the security belt forces of the Emirati-backed Transitional Council, the security belt took the village as a strategic location to fight against the government forces.
This forced most of the villagers to flee, but some families remained in their places because they had no other options. Since the outbreak of the last war between the allies until now, these families have endured what remains of the scourge of wars and the sounds of cannons, many of whom are children and youth who went to enlist because of poverty for a daily wage.
The camps of the security belt were spread all over the small village, and they set up barricades in the village of Al-Tariya. Therefore, the village of Berbera was between the two fronts, the front of the government forces, about 2 kilometers away, and the front of the security belt forces of the Transitional Council, about 200 meters away.
In December 2020, after the implementation of the Riyadh Agreement, the entry of peacekeeping forces, and the withdrawal of the Transitional Council forces, the latter left behind all kinds of remnants of war scattered everywhere in the village. The children of the village and those who returned to it were - as usual - playing and tending the sheep, not knowing that something was waiting for them to kill their innocent childhood.
Mahdi was a fourteen-year-old boy who lived with his family in a thatched house. He has five brothers, Anis (26 years old), Ali (21 years old), Abdul Rahman (18 years old), Rahma (11 years old) and Hind (7 years old), while he is the sixth in his family, along with his unemployed father and mother.
Mahdi's family depends on herding for their livelihood. When the war intensified in 2019, Mahdi's family was displaced with some families to the Qurayyat area, which is 20 km away and belongs to the Zanzibar District.
Whenever he passed by a place he notices some strange objects that he did not know their being. At one of those objects, the water bottle fell out of his left hand, and he threw his stick out of his other hand, and lowered his stature to pick up the projectile, and carried it with him, then took time to explore it, by trying to smash it with a stone, which led to its explosion.
The family was displaced with their sheep for a whole year, during which they suffered the worst living conditions. After the warring parties withdrew, the Mahdi family returned to the village and found the village totally changed.
A new checkpoint has been set up about half a kilometer away, and there are large earthen barricades surrounding the village, and everyone outside the village was shocked by the presence of projectiles and weapons lying everywhere.
When the security belt withdrew, it left behind all types of war remnants, indifferent to the harm it might cause to civilians, especially children, including mines that were planted by both sides to hinder each other's progress.
In the period following the withdrawal of the forces and the return of the people, landmines exploded, at least three times among the animals in the area, especially donkeys and sheep, which spread an atmosphere of panic among all, but what should be done, with civilians forced to lead their normal lives, and earn money from them?
Mahdi's family is very poor, like other residents of the area. Mahdi's father was a shepherd sometimes, as was his mother, but this occupation was mainly restricted to Mahdi.
The child goes out to pasture at about 08:00 in the morning, returns at 12:00 in the afternoon, and then resumes at 03:00 in the afternoon to 06:00 in the evening.
At 08:00 in the morning of March 28, 2021, Mahdi went out with his sheep. He was pale in face, walking under the whips of a blazing sun, shaking his beasts with one hand, and holding a water bottle with the other, and because he had left his school, he resigned himself to this life.
Whenever he passed by a place he notices some strange objects that he did not know their being. At one of those objects, the water bottle fell out of his left hand, and he threw his stick out of his other hand, and lowered his stature to pick up the projectile, and carried it with him, then took time to explore it, by trying to smash it with a stone, which led to its explosion.
And because it was still about 300 meters away from the village, the people heard the sound of the explosion, so everyone rushed to the place. It was between 10:00 and 11:00 in the morning. Mahdi's father and his brothers, Anis and Ali, were among those who went to the place.
When they arrived, they found the child covered in his own blood. He was taken to the Sheikh Salem area of the Zanzibar District, and there the Giants forces, which carry out peacekeeping missions, took him by their own ambulance to Al-Razi General Hospital, which is 35 km from the area.
His brothers were by his side. When performing treatment process, it became clear that there was shrapnel in the abdomen on the left side, shrapnel in the palm of the right hand, shrapnel in the back of the left hand, and his index finger was lacerated, in addition to shrapnel in the legs below the knee.
The child was in a state of distress and panic, and he was operated on and the shrapnel removed. He suffered from ear pain due to the power of the explosion, and he lost 3 of his 30 cattle, as a result of shrapnel. Mahdi is currently living in his village, but under very difficult psychological complications.
